The Land of the Kangaroo

The rapidly increasing prominence of the Australian colonies during the past ten or twenty years has led to the preparation of the volume of which this is the preface. Australia has a population numbering close upon five millions and it had prosperous and populous cities, all of them presenting abundant indications of collective and individual wealth. It possesses railways and telegraphs by thousands of miles, and the productions of its farms, mines, and plantations aggregate an enormous amount. It has many millions, of cattle and sheep, and their number is increasing annually at a prodigious rate.

Australia is a land of many wonders, and it is to tell the story of these wonders and of the growth and development of the colonies of the antipodes, that this volume has been written.

T. W. K.

CONTENTS.

I. WEST COAST OF AFRICA--Adventure in the South Atlantic Ocean II. THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE--The Southern Ocean--Australia III. A LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS--Transportation to Australia IV. STRANGE ADVENTURES--Australian Aboriginals V. ACROSS AUSTRALIA--Tallest Trees in the World VI. AUSTRALIAN BLACKS--Throwing the Boomerang VII. ADELAIDE TO MELBOURNE--The Rabbit Pest--Dangerous Exotics VIII. CANNIBAL BLACKS--Melbourne and its Peculiarities IX. "THE LAUGHING JACKASS"--Australian Snakes and Snake Stories X. THE HARBOR OF MELBOURNE--Convict Hulks and Bushrangers XI. GEELONG--Australian Gold Mines--Finding a Big Nugget XII. A SOUTHERLY BURSTER--Western Victoria XIII. JOURNEY UP COUNTRY--Anecdotes of Bush Life XIV. LOST IN THE BUSH--Australian Horses XV. EXPERIENCES AT A CATTLE STATION--A Kangaroo Hunt XVI. HUNTING THE EMU AND OTHER BIRDS--An Australian Sheep Run XVII. FROM MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY--Crossing the Blue Mountains XVIII. SIGHTS OF SYDNEY--Botany Bay and Paramatta XIX. COAL MINES AT NEWCASTLE--Sugar Plantation in Queensland--The End

ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE.

"We passed a ship becalmed in the doldrums" Frontispiece. 18 "Harry had obtained a map of Australia" 56 A visit to the Zoological Garden 147 "There they go!" shouted Mr. Syme 242

THE LAND OF THE KANGAROO.

CHAPTER I.

WEST COAST OF AFRICA--ADVENTURE IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN.

"We don't want to stay long in this place."

"I don't think we do, sir," was the reply.

"The sooner we leave it, the better."

"That is so," said Harry; "I quite agree with you. I wonder how white men manage to live here at all."

This conversation occurred at Bonny, a trading station on one of the mouths of the river Niger in Western Africa. In former times Bonny was a famous resort for slave traders, and great numbers of slaves were sent from that place to North and South America. In addition to slave trading, there was considerable dealing in ivory, palm oils, and other African products. Trade is not as prosperous at Bonny nowadays as it was in the slave-dealing times, but there is a fair amount of commerce and the commissions of the factors and agents are very large. Bonny stands in a region of swamps, and the climate exhales at all times of the year pestilential vapors which are not at all suited to the white man. Most of the white residents live on board old hulks which are moored to the bank of the river, and they find these hulks less unhealthy than houses off shore, for the reason that they are less exposed to the vapors of the ground.

The parties to the conversation just quoted were Dr. Whitney and his nephews, Ned and Harry; they had just arrived at Bonny, from a visit to Lake Chad and Timbuctoo, and had made a voyage down the Niger, which has been described in a volume entitled "In Wild Africa."